Journey Into Hope: Consultation with Christian Leaders, Development Organisations and UNAIDS on HIV/AIDS Related Issues

Journey Into Hope: Consultation with Christian Leaders, Development Organisations and UNAIDS on HIV/AIDS Related Issues

Extracted from the Consultation report - Journey into
Hope. Consultation with Christian leaders, Development Organisations and UNAIDS
on HIV/AIDS Related Issues. 20-23 September 1999, Gaborone, Botswana.
Requests for copies should be sent to; Health Services, Salvation Army
International Headquarters, 101 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4P 4EP,UK.
E-mail: Ian-Campbell@salvationarmy.org

In 1997, Calle Almedal, UNAIDS Senior NGO Liaison Officer,
proposed to Ian Campbell of the Salvation Army International facilitation team,
that it was time for an expression of collaborative community-based response to
HIV/AIDS by Christian church leaders, especially in Africa. This was also
proposed with the view that churches in the south could be advocates with their
sister churches in the north. An awakening of conscience, compassionate
commitment and action was the chief purpose of the consultation.

A working group representing several Christian faith based
organisations was formed, and it led to a consultation in Gaborone, hosted by
the Botswana Christian Council, with 46 participants from 19 countries. Before
the consultation, most participants joined in an exposure visit; there were six
teams in four countries, observing and experiencing the local home and
neighbourhood reality. Together they reflected on the strengths seen, the
challenges facing people affected by HIV and the effort to form some pathways
into a more secure future.

In a Vision Statement prepared by the working group prior to the
consultation, the response to HIV/AIDS so far by the Christian communities was
acknowledged. But it was also pointed out that the convictional motivation of
faith and human experience has not generated response widely or quickly enough
in churches in a global sense. Undeniably, local action has often been started
by Christian churches or organisations connected to them in places such as
Uganda, Zambia, Thailand, Ecuador and Russia, but the potential capacity for
spiritual and programme development is largely untapped. So the international
expansion of progress is limited because a large potentially potent yet still
latent passion in people is not being developed.

Concept analysis was the foundation of the consultation
process - On each successive day the key concept of care and community; loss,
hope and future; and change were explored, mainly through sharing, and
reflecting on, experiences in communities linked to some key theological
foundations.

The Consultation Opening included statements from:

· David Modiega,
General Secretary, Botswana Christian Council: You have come to Botswana
at a time when we are counting bodies. There is more pain, less joy. ....The
question that we are asking in churches now is: Are we giving time to worship?
Have we become too busy with death? There are more questions as church: who are
we engaging with? Are we there? Are we carrying out our advocacy role? Are we in
denial?

· Archbishop Makhulu, Botswana:
Philoxenia means hospitality to strangers. Hospitality is the opposite of
xenophobia (fear of people different from us). Wholeness even in the face of
lameness of love and in deprivation is possible. A community without compassion
is dead, it is a loose entity of disjointed people....Christians may deny the
suffering of AIDS, with self righteousness, condemning those suffering from
HIV/AIDS. Yet we are connected. Community is about concentric circles of
relationships. We must maintain commitment to the suffering community, and the
practices of confession and hospitality.

Actual results of the consultation were:

1. Personal change: I had taken AIDS as an
eccentric issue. The consultation has helped me to see it as a problem of my
people. AIDS will not be a secret anymore - I will discuss it openly
with my children.

2. Application within countries.

· Local action (for
example, Botswana participants met immediately after the consultation to plan
for widespread local engagements).

· In-country communication (e
-mail, other)

· Consultations in-country to
generate action

3. Applications between countries - mutual support
through established networks, by informal links or shared action

4. Media interest in the impact in Botswana

5. South-North engagement has been strengthened from the
perspective of Christian churches in Africa with international linkages. There
is raised consciousness regarding the need for advocacy internationally, so that
the voices in Africa are heard, respected and appreciated, and so that it can be
genuinely understood that Africa is not alone in its difficult journey into
hope. It is clear that the participants as church leaders and facilitators need
to challenge, provoke and inspire within Africa and beyond.

6. Processes and tools for follow-up - for example, the
E group to be co-ordinated by Dan Odallo, UNAIDS, Pretoria, to help
people communicate, share documentary resources and coordinate participatory
learning processes.

7. Consolidation of the International Partnership on AIDS in
Africa (IPAA) through at least one significant expression - collaboration
between church leaders, Christian development organisations and
UNAIDS.